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OCTOBER 20081
From Mexico to Mali: The Bamako Ministerial Forum on Health
Research
CONTENTS
ISSUE N° 16OCTOBER 2008
Alliance for Health Policyand Systems Research
Health workers salaries workshop
Dissemination of Sound Choices, Colombia
Enhancing policy maker capacity to use evidence
The International Health Partnership and what it means for
health systems
Alliance HPSRBulletin Board
Identifying priority research questions
Workshop for ranking HPSR priorities in the MENA region
Welcome to three new Board members
From Mexico to Mali: The Bamako Ministerial Forum on Research
for Health
Building upon the Ministerial Summit on Health Research held in
Mexico in 2004 and on the findings of the Task Force on Health
Systems Research Report, World Health Assembly Resolution 58.34
called for:“The global scientific community, international
partners, the private sector, civil society, and other relevant
stakeholders, as appropriate:
to provide support for a substantive and sustainable programme
of health-systems research aligned with priority country needs and
aimed at achieving the internationally agreed health-related
development goals, including those contained in the United Nations
Millennium Declaration;to strengthen or establish the transfer of
knowledge in order to communicate, improve access to, and promote
use of, reliable, relevant, unbiased, and timely health
information.”
It is four years since the last major international meeting on
health research, the Mexico Ministerial Summit, and world leaders
in health research are now preparing to meet again
thin Bamako, Mali 17-20 November. From the perspective of the
Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, the Mexico meeting
marked a watershed. Three main messages emanated from the meeting -
two of which (see box) concerned issues core to the mission and
objectives of the Alliance (the third main message
focused on transparency and accountability in research). In
preparation for the Bamako Ministerial Forum on Health Research,
the Alliance, together with the International Development Research
Center (IDRC) of Canada, hosted a meeting in Nyon, Switzerland.
More than 40 researchers from 28 countries, both in the South and
the North, who have a particular interest in health policy and
systems research (HPSR) and the application of evidence to health
policy, gathered to:
critically assess developments in HPSR in low and middle income
countries and its application to policy since the Mexico Summit,
2004;
highlight current gaps, priorities and challenges in the HPSR
field that need to be addressed;
discuss and agree how best to move forward the HPSR field.
During the two-day meeting, participants reviewed evidence about
the evolution of the HPSR field and debated emerging needs, with a
view to informing both discussions at Bamako, and further action by
the institutions sponsoring and participating in the meeting and
other key stakeholders including national governments, and research
and development funders.Some significant changes have taken place
since Mexico. For example, health systems are increasingly
recognized as critical to the delivery of priority interventions,
as reflected in new funding streams from the GAVI Alliance and the
Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Participants from the Stock Taking Meeting, Nyon, May 2008
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Welcome to three new Board members
Three new Board members will be joining the Alliance Board in
October. We are delighted to welcome:
Jonathon Broomberg - Jonathon is a medical doctor and health
economist. He has spent many years working as a health researcher
and consultant in South Africa (his native country) and elsewhere
in Africa and Eastern Europe. Jonathon is currently the General
Manager of Discovery Health, a South African company that offers
both health insurance and other health services and he was formerly
the chair of the Global Fund’s Technical Review Panel.
Somsak Chunharas - Somsak is a medical doctor with an MPH from
the Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam. He is currently the
Secretary General of the Thai National Health Foundation, an NGO
with a mission to promote knowledge-based health systems. He has
worked as a consultant to many international organizations and is
is also an advisor to the Thai Ministry of Public Health, and is a
member of WHO’s Advisory Committee on Health Research.
Sania Nishtar - is a cardiologist from Pakistan with a PhD from
King`s College London. She is the Founding President of Heartfile,
a non-government think tank that has provided influential advice on
health sector reforms in Pakistan. She has a particular interest in
issues of governance, public/private relations in the health
sector, and health system responses to the burden of
non-communicable diseases.
SN:practising cardiologist, I established Heartfile as an NGO in
1999; its initial objectives were to create awareness about heart
disease prevention and control. Subsequently, in the wake of the
epidemiological transition, I realized that Pakistan, as a country
needed to do something more at a structural level to address the
escalating burden of cardiovascular and other non-communicable
diseases (NCDs). I started advocating to the government and set up
pilot projects to explore and demonstrate how NCDs could be
integrated into public health planning. In 2003, I reached an
agreement with the government through a memorandum of understanding
and spent the next year writing the National Plan of Action for
I started my career as a cardiologist and whilst I was a
Slowly, the interest in health systems is translating into
increased research funding for health systems. However it seems
that only a limited amount of these new resources for HPSR have yet
trickled down to low and middle income country institutions.With
respect to knowledge transfer, we are aware of a growing number of
small scale initiatives to promote country level knowledge
translation mechanisms, and indeed the Alliance has supported some
of these. But the Nyon meeting called for the scale up of
investment in this field to enable it to move beyond the "proof of
concept" stage and into implementation proper.Perhaps the strongest
message that came from the Nyon meeting was the need to focus on
country capacities and the critical role that national leadership
can and should play in developing a vision for health research,
including HPSR, and ensuring that research funders align behind
country priorities. In many contexts capacity for HPSR is so weak,
that a sustained programme of capacity development activities is
required, involving individual and organizational support, so as to
establish a critical mass of HPSR capacity.
The themes, and likely conclusions from Bamako have inevitably
moved on since Mexico: Bamako will have a stronger focus on
learning from across different sectors, and the role of social
determinants in affecting health outcomes. The themes of research
governance and accountability will also be addressed. These are all
important issues. However perhaps equally important is the
accountability for action in the wake of such global meetings. Such
global events are resource and labor intensive, requiring years of
planning and coordination. Yet it is clear that the recommendations
from the Mexico Summit have only partially been achieved, and
remain highly pertinent. Momentum towards their achievement must be
accelerated through the Mali Ministerial Forum and beyond. Let`s
not live by J.K. Galbraith`s dictum that meetings are
"indispensable when you don't want to do anything".
More information about the Alliance HPSR stocktaking meeting,
including the meeting statement, report and presentations can be
found at:www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/stocktaking/en/index.htmlMore
information about the Bamako Forum is at: www.bamako2008.org/
Dr Sania Nishtar, Alliance HPSR Board member,Founder and
President Heartfile, Islamabad, Pakistan
OCTOBER 20082
The November edition of RealHealthNews carries aninterview with
Sania Nishtar, excerpts of which are re-printed below.
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Non-Communicable Disease prevention, Control and Health
Promotion in Pakistan and galvanized a movement to get a national
consensus on the strategy. Through this, the spectrum of my work
broadened from heart to non-communicable diseases, because clearly
as you would know, they need to be addressed together within a
common public health framework. Once we stated implementing the
program, I realised that the actual problem with public health
programs lies at the level of health systems and broader processes
of the state. This realization was a turning point in my career as
that is how I got interested in health systems, the social sector
and overarching processes of the state. One of the things I did
afterwards was to write the Gateway papers; these got the
government and other stakeholders to think in a very new way about
reforming the health system. Some of my work became the basis of
agreements with the government through which I contributed time and
developed frameworks for new policies.
RW: Tell me about the gateway papers.
SN: I use ‘Gateway’ as a connotation for publications in a
monograph form to denote that we are trying to drive change from
outside of the ‘gates’ of the formal state system and in my
capacity as a member of the civil society. Performing an analytical
role in the health policy and systems sphere as a civil society
entity is challenging given that on the one hand you want to
handhold and technically assist any government in office in larger
public interest, but on the other hand you also want to play the
role of a watchdog and a catalyst for change. I value our role as
an honest broker and the term Gateway is meant to signify an
arms-length relationship with the government.
Extracted from a full length interview to appear in
RealthHealthNews n°10 (www.realhealthnews.net) at the Global
Ministerial Forum on Research for Health at Bamako, Mali, 17th to
19th November 2008.
Read on: Heartfile - the Gateway Series of
Publicationswww.heartfile.org/gateway.htm
Identifying priority research questions: priorities emerging
In the last Alliance HPSR Newsletter, we described a program of
work, led by the Alliance, which aims to identify high priority
health systems research questions in three thematic areas - human
resources for health (HRH), health systems financing (HSF), and the
role of the non-state sector - and to communicate the importance of
these issues to research funders.
Research priorities - identified through interviews with key
informants across 24 countries and overviews of systematic
literature reviews - for two of the thematic areas, HRH and HSF,
were ranked at workshops that brought together experts in the
corresponding field. The top-ranked, tractable HRH and HSF research
questions are presented below. Additional information can be found
at the Alliance website.
A preliminary list of non-state sector research priorities are
to be ranked at a meeting on the 10th of October, 2008, Bellagio,
Italy. This workshop is being co-hosted by the Alliance and WHO's
Department for Health System Governance and Service Delivery
(HDS).
As well, the Alliance has recently commissioned work to identify
gaps in three, relatively neglected, research areas. These reviews
(listed in the following table) will be published as Alliance
Briefing Notes in the near future.
Human resources for health Health systems financing
1. How can financial and non-financial incentives be used to
attract and retain health workers to under-serviced areas?
1. How do we develop and implement universal financial
protection?
2. Should dual practice (i.e. simultaneous practice in both the
public and the private sectors) be regulated, and if so, how?
2. What are the pros and cons of the different ways of
identifying the poor?
3. How can financial and non-financial incentives be used to
optimize health worker performance?
3. To what extent do health benefits reach the poor?
4. What policy mechanisms can be used to improve the
distribution and retention of health workers?
4. What are the pros and cons of implementing demand-side
subsidies?
5. What can be done to mitigate problems of out-migration of
health workers?
5. What is the equity impact of social health insurance and how
can it be improved?
Title Author
Health Systems and Policy Research in Fragile States Olga
Bornemisza
Governance and accountability Rene Loewenson
Health information systems Carla AbouZahr
OCTOBER 2008 3
The top-ranked, tractable HRH and HSF research questions
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OCTOBER 20084
Health Financing
Elements of an equitable health financing system
Means to develop HRH information systems in ministries of health
and national observatories
Ways to regulate and monitor the quality of care in the private
sector
Human Resources for Health Role of the Non-State Sector
Priority Research Issues in the Middle East and North Africa
Region
Household ability to pay for health care Gaps in existing
education and training programs
Ways to optimize the use of the existing resources of the
Non-state sector to meet health system objectives
Linking population health needs to health spending
Information on patient satisfaction Ways for the public and
private sector to complement their service delivery
Role of the social health insurance system in guaranteeing
equity
Accurate estimates and needs in HRH numbers and specialties
(mapping)
Areas where the state and civil society groups can complement
each other
Identifying best practices to develop and implement a national
social health insurance system
Ways that can enable education and training programs to meet
population health needs
National database on the non-state sector
Workshop for Ranking HPSR Priorities in the Middle East and
North Africa Region
The two-day workshop was attended by 30 participants
representing policy makers, researchers and representatives of the
non-state sector from the 9 study countries. The participants
validated and ranked a common list of research priorities
A regional consensus meeting was held in Beirut on July 3rd
related to the above referenced themes (see table). Also, and 4th
2008 to validate and rank research priorities related to
participants identified policy relevant research questions that
health financing, human resources for health and the role of should
be addressed within the coming 1 to 3 years in the the non-state
sector. The objectives of this workshop were to: MENA region.
Participants acknowledged that this workshop (1) validate the
common list of research priorities related to was the first
opportunity for policy makers to meet with health financing, human
resources for health and the role of researchers and
representatives of the non-state sector to the non-state sector
that emerged from the nine selected discuss health system issues
and to identify policy relevant countries within the region; (2)
identify the most important research questions. An additional
outcome of the workshop research priorities on the 3 themes in the
Middle East and was the formation of a policy and research network.
Workshop North Africa (MENA) region; and (3) reach a consensus
among participants recommended the following: researchers, policy
makers and other stakeholders on a policy
1. Sustain the policy and research network that has been
relevant research agenda for the region. developed in the region
and develop terms of reference and seek
funding for sustaining this network;2. Develop country-specific
briefs on policy challenges and
research priorities related to the three themes;3. Develop three
policy briefs on regional priority research
questions, one brief for each theme;4. Prepare and submit
manuscripts for publication in open-
access journals and disseminate findings in regional and
international conferences;
5. Identify additional themes pertaining to the nine study
countries;
6. Develop a synthesis report that summarizes study methodology,
key findings and lessons learnt.
7. Strengthen the priority setting exercise to include other
This was the culmination of a priority setting exercise countries
in the MENA region and to cover more thematic areas undertaken in 9
Low and Middle Income countries in the than the ones that were
investigated; Middle East and North Africa Region in collaboration
with the
8. Develop joint proposals based on the research priorities and
MENA Health Policy Forum. This study is jointly funded by the
questions that emerged from the workshop and seek funding for
Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and the these
proposals;
International Development Research Centre, Canada. The nine 9.
Seek funding to conduct country specific workshops to ensure
countries included in the study are: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan,
that the research priorities generated from this work are
integrated Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
Work in into current and future strategic plans of Ministries of
Health in the these countries identified policy concerns as
perceived by policy study countries.makers, researchers and
academics, health professional groups, For more information
contact: Fadi El Jardali, American University, Beirut.
non-governmental organizations. Email: [email protected]
Workshop participants, Beirut, July 2008
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OCTOBER 2008 5
Earlier this year the Alliance HPSR awarded start up grants to
four teams in middle-income countries to further develop their
proposals regarding innovative strategies to enhance policy maker
capacity to use evidence. The four teams, from Argentina, Colombia,
Georgia and Mexico met in Miami in September to discuss and refine
their emerging proposals, and work together on developing an
evaluation plan.
There is a broad range of interventions being considered by the
different teams. Both Colombia and Mexico are planning training
programmes for policy makers and civil society representatives in
knowledge transfer. The Colombian team, intends to pursue its ideas
through an innovative programme of internships that enable young
researchers to spend time in research environments. Both Mexico and
Colombia are exploring the feasibility of developing their
programmes into diploma courses on knowledge transfer.
In Georgia, the focus is rather different. The team there will
work primarily with civil society organizations, both providing
individual training and organizational support to enable these
organizations to make their advocacy work more evidence-based. The
approach adopted by the Argentinean team is different again: they
wish to test the effectiveness of role plays (with policy makers
and researchers) as a tool to bring about cognitive (and hence
behavioural) change among policy makers and researchers in terms of
evidence use. All four teams see the strengthening of networks
among policy makers and researchers as being an important outcome
of their initiative.
In many respects the Canadian Health Services Research
Foundation (CHSRF) has led the way in terms of innovative
strategies to promote policy maker use of evidence. For example the
Foundation runs the Executive Training for Research Application
(EXTRA) programme. The Alliance was lucky enough to be joined in
Miami by David Clements the Vice President for Knowledge Exchange
at CHSRF and Francois Champagne, faculty at the University of
Montreal and a technical officer of the Foundation. Their presence
supported discussion amongst the teams of application of the
Foundation`s Policy Maker Self-assessment tool, and we were able to
learn much from Professor Champagne regarding evaluation of the
strategies to be implemented.
A further call for proposals on this topic will be launched in
October, by the Alliance in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust
(see Box).
Enhancing policy maker capacity to useevidence: Miami
Meeting
New Call for Proposals“Enhancing capacity to apply research
evidence in policy making”
The Wellcome Trust and the Alliance for Health Policy and
Systems Research recognise the importance of using health research
evidence in policymaking. This joint call for proposals is focused
on low income countries and intends to build much needed capacity
to strengthen links between research and policy making.
Proposals are invited from groups based in low income countries
to:
Develop and implement innovative interventions that enhance
policy maker capacity and/or civil society capacity to employ
health policy and systems research evidence in policy making and
policy dialogue;
Conduct rigorous evaluations of the strategies employed.
All proposals must address both of these objectives.
Brief expressions of interest should be submitted to the
Alliance by 16th January 2009. For more information and details on
the application process see: www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/en/ or
www.wellcome.ac.uk.
Participants, Miami Meeting, September 2008
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OCTOBER 20086
Health workers salaries workshop Disseminating Sound Choicesin
ColombiaIn 2007, the Alliance HPSR together with the Global
Health
Workforce Alliance (GHWA) issued a call for proposals for
primary research on health worker salaries. Three grants were
awarded to research organizations based in Burkina Faso, Chile and
Kenya (The Kenya Medical Research Institute). Each team is working
in several countries within their region using local
collaborators.
In May 2008, the Alliance HPSR, with administrative support from
the Kenya Medical Research Institute, hosted a three-day data
analysis workshop with the study grantees from East and West
Africa. All key investigators from Benin, Burkina Faso, Kenya,
Niger, Tanzania and Uganda participated in the workshop. In
addition a researcher from Zambia, not funded by the Alliance but
following the same study methods and protocols, also
participated.
The workshop brought together the study investigators and the
project coordinators: David McCoy from the University College of
London and Taghreed Adam from the Alliance HPSR with the following
objectives to:-
review and discuss the data collected to date in the different
study sites, as well as the plan of analysis, interpretation and
reporting;
resolve outstanding methodological issues and ensure the
comparability of results from the different sites; and
develop plans for the remainder of the project period.
At the time of the workshop, data collection has been completed
in the three west African countries but was still under-way in the
three east African countries and in Zambia. The final study reports
will be available towards the end of 2008. The report from the
Chilean study group, which involved Bolivia, Chile and Peru is
already available and can be accessed on the Alliance website.
The Asociación Colombiana de la Salud - ASSALUD (Colombian
Health Association) has committed to disseminating the Alliance
biennual report ¨Sound Choices ¨ in Colombia. Discussions of the
report took place as part of the preparatory work on the
Alliance-funded project to enhance policy-maker capacity to use
evidence. In addition the Colombian Health Systems and Policy
Network has presented the report to academicians, policy makers,
health services providers and civil society organizations in the
cities of Medellin, Cali and Manizales. Spanish language
dissemination material has been prepared in a Power Point format
for each chapter - please contact ASSALUD (see below) if you wish
to use this.Francisco Yepes, ASSALUD, www.assalud.org.coEmail:
[email protected]
Workshop participants, Nairobi, May 2008
Workshop, Colombia, Disseminating Sound Choices
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■ ISSN 1819-4648
Designed by Capria Sàrl, CH 1201 Geneva, Switzerland
Printed in Switzerland
OCTOBER 2008 7
The International Health Partnershipand what it means for health
systems
The International Health Partnership (IHP) was launched in
September 2007, with all signatories signing a Global Compact to
maximise the effectiveness and impact of actions for strengthening
health systems and ultimately delivering results against the
health-related MDGs. The IHP now includes 10 developing countries,
13 donors, and nine international organizations, and has evolved to
become the IHP and Related Initiatives (IHP+), in recognition of
the fact that its launch coincided with a range of other
initiatives with similar goals. These initiatives have adopted
approaches which support broader health systems development,
recognising that progress against key diseases are constrained by
weaknesses in health systems.
Strengthening health systems requires coordinated action and
increased investments; these should be informed by needs-based
research and a strong evidence base. Unfortunately, in too many low
to middle income countries, these requirements are often not
fulfilled or in need of improvement. In regards to health systems
research, there are many low income countries that currently have
no or extremely limited capacity to undertake policy-relevant
analyses of health systems.
The IHP+ encourages the Alliance’s efforts to address this
capacity gap with an approach that is aligned with the IHP+
principles of actions being country-focused and country-led. While
there is some investment in health systems research, much of this
is not country-led, is fragmented, and fails to address long-term
capacity development in low income countries. Such activities
should focus on locally defined research priorities supporting
decision making in low income countries. Similarly, the focus needs
to be on building domestic capacity for research and learning to
lead a national/international research agenda. In addition, health
systems research and analysis should be harmonized and aligned.
Such a strategic and long-term approach to capacity development for
health systems research would in turn contribute to strengthened
health systems and improved health outcomes.Justine HsuIHP+ Core
TeamWHO GenevaFor more information see:
www.internationalhealthpartnership.net/
■ BOARDJonathan Broomberg, General Manager, Discovery Health,
Sandton, South AfricaBarbro Carlsson, Department for Research
Cooperation at the Swedish International Development Cooperation
Agency, Stockholm, SwedenSomsak Chunharas, Secretary General,
National Health Foundation, Bangkok, ThailandStephen Matlin, Global
Forum for Health Research, Geneva, SwitzerlandAnne Mills, London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United
KingdomSania Nishtar, Founder and President Heartfile, Islamabad,
PakistanJohn-Arne Rottingen, Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the
Health Services, Oslo, NorwaySameen Siddiqi, World Health
Organization, Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, Cairo,
Egypt
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■ SCIENTIFIC TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (STAC) Irene Akua
Agepong , Ghana Health Service, Accra, GhanaShanlian Hu, School of
Public Health of Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of
ChinaJohn Lavis, McMaster University, Hamilton, CanadaLindiwe
Makubalo, Department of Health, Pretoria, South Africa Ravindra
Rannan-Eliya, Institute for Health Policy, Colombo, Sri Lanka Delia
Sanchez, Grupo de Estudios en Economía, Organización y Políticas
Sociales, Montevideo, Uruguay Goran Tomson , Karolinska Institute,
Stockholm, Sweden
■
We welcome your comments and suggestions on any of the topics
covered in this newsletter and relating to the Alliance HPSR in
general. If you would like to subscribe/unsubscribe to this
newsletter please email us at [email protected]. See our full
contact details below:Alliance for Health Policy and Systems
ResearchWorld Health OrganizationCH-1211 Geneva 27, SwitzerlandTel.
: +41 22 791 2973, Fax : +41 22 791 4817E-mail:
[email protected] HPSR Website:
www.who.int/alliance-hpsr
ALLIANCE FOR HEALTH POLICY AND SYSTEMS RESEARCHWorld Health
Organization
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OCTOBER 20088
Alliance HPSR
AfHEA-AHPSR Competition Results Announcement
International Health Economics Association (IHEA)meeting in
Beijing, Call for papers
Symposium on "The role of the private sectorin health" 11 July
2009, Beijing
Alliance HPSR e-news
New publications
Alliance website available in 6 official languages
Evaluating health system interventions
Visit our websitehttp://www.who.int/alliance-hpsr
BULLETIN BOARD
The African Health Economics and Policy Association (AfHEA) and
the Alliance HPSR are pleased to announce the results of our
jointly-sponsored competition for papers on the theme of user fees
for health services in Africa. The competition attracted many
excellent submissions. An evaluation team headed by Professor Lucy
Gilson of the University of Cape Town assessed all the papers. Each
paper was assessed by at least two referees.
The following were judged to be the five best papers:
Aida Zerbo (Senegal) "Le Juste prix pour la santé" (A fair price
for health)
Idoyu Araoyinbo and John Ataguba (South Africa) - User Fees in
Africa: From theory and evidence - what next?
Morbé Mbaïnadjina Ngartelbaye, Itama Mayikuli Christian, Naïbei
Mbaïbardoum Nathan, (Chad) - Etude socio-économique sur les coûts
et sur l’accessibilité financière des populations aux soins de
santé à l’Est du Tchad (A socio-economic study of the costs and
financial accessibility of health services in Eastern Chad)
Charles Birungi (Uganda) - When User Fees is a Necessity of
Life: What role for policy in Uganda (student prize)
Anne Kangethe (Kenya) - User Fees for Health Services in Africa
(student prize)
Authors of each paper will receive a cash prize of $1,000, and
the lead author of each paper will be funded to attend the AfHEA
inaugural conference, titled "Priorities of Health Economics in
Africa". The conference will be held in Accra, Ghana from the 10th
to the 12th March 2009. You can register for the conference at
www.afhea.org. All the winning papers are on both the AfHEA and the
Alliance websites.
The Seventh World Congress on Health Economics will be taking
place in Beijing 12-15th July 2009 on the theme “Harmonizing Health
and Economics”. Submission of abstracts and session proposals is
open until 15th November 2008. This forum has been accepting an
increasing proportion of abstracts from low and middle income
countries - let’s make sure Beijing continues this trend. More
information available at:
www.healtheconomics.org/congress/2009/
and middle income countries. The session, organized by a group
of partners including the Alliance, will examine three themes,
namely (i) Understanding the nature of mixed health systems (ii)
Working with the private sector and (iii) Policy interventions. See
the announcement on the Alliance website for more information.
In conjunction with the iHEA meeting in Beijing, a pre-congress
symposium is being held on the role of the private sector in
low
While it is great to have a paper newsletter to hold in your
hand and read, our current schedule of newsletters (two per year)
is not sufficiently frequent to disseminate calls for conference
papers or research proposals, and job announcements. The Alliance
is currently experimenting with an e-news letter that we will be
sending out every few weeks. Please let us know if you would like
to be added to this mailing list, or provide us with your
announcements regarding health policy and systems research. All
such messages should be sent to [email protected]
The Alliance has recently released a number of new publications,
including a series of reports summarizing its recent programme of
work on the identification of priority research questions, and
three briefing notes on emerging issues in health policy and
systems research. Please consult the resources page of our website
for copies of all these publications.
The Alliance website is now available in Arabic, Chinese,
English, French, Russian and Spanish. Please do forward this
message on to all of your colleagues who might wish to access it in
these languages. Please note that for budgetary reasons the English
home page will be updated more frequently than the pages in other
languages. As always we welcome your suggestions about how to
improve the website.
The 2009 Alliance Biennial Review is planned to be on the topic
of evaluating health systems interventions. The report will try to
address both some of the difficult methodological issues in
conducting this kind of evaluation, as well as some of the process
issues, particularly regarding how best to ensure that evaluations
get commissioned and their findings feed into policy. If you are
aware of any particularly interesting case studies of health system
evaluations or would like to contribute in some way to the report,
then please contact: [email protected]
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